Coach ,

As you know speed development is a necessary and present aspect of every event in track and field. I'm on a mission to find the necessary aspects in training your athletes and apply the perfect combination of volume, intensity, drills, and coaching.

I’ve been looking through a ton of sprint presentations over the years and one thing keeps coming back around. It’s the simplicity that can be present when programming your speed development. The best coaches in the world have learned that it won’t be perfect right away. Revision through trial and error is a part of the process.

Coach Ernie Clark has been a part of the development of some of the top athletes in D2 in all the sprint events. His personality, his ability to deliver his ideas to his athletes, and his passion have helped him move to the highest level of D1 coaching as an assistant at San Jose State University. In this clip he discusses the HOW behind sprint development and it is more simple than you’d imagine for someone with his resume and experiences. 

Link: How of Speed Development

The need for coaches to focus on the opportunities within the warm-up or drills sessions to coach is critical. What you do isn’t what makes your athletes faster. It’s a specific application of how you do your speed development and how you coach your athletes during workouts. Kebba Tolbert at Harvard recently shared his philosophy on his prep phases for speed development. 

Link: Prep Phases

Coach Tolbert explained the variety of methods you can use in your speed development plan. Next he explains his guiding principles behind the application of these tools. Coaches like to think more is always better when it comes to speed and power work. The volume at Harvard might surprise you!

Link: Guiding Principles

The guiding principles provided should help all coaches shape their decisions as they build the inventory and program for whatever population they serve. Coach Tolbert and Coach Clark have some of the most extensive information on sprint programming. Be sure to check out the entire replay. Speed grows like a tree, be patient.

Always be growing,

Coach Rathke and the T&F Community of Coaches helping Coaches